This tutorial will show you how to download and install QGIS on MacOS.
Preparing QGIS for use with ECOSTRESS Data
QGIS is an open-source Geographic Information System used to display and analyze geographic data. QGIS is free to the public and is user friendly. QGIS can be used for interacting with vector and raster data.
- Start by going to https://www.qgis.org/en/site/ or by searching the web for QGIS. The page should look something like this:
- Select the green Download button.
- The new screen that pops up will ask you if you would like to make a donation. You can do so if you want to, or select Skip it and go to download.
- Select the green Long Term Version for Mac OS button to begin downloading the newest version of QGIS.
- A file should appear in your downloads looking like this.
- Double click on the download to launch it. Once launched, a window will appear asking you to agree to the terms of the license. Select Agree.
- Once you agree, a pop up will appear prompting you to add QGIS to your applications. Drag and drop the QGIS icon into the Applications folder icon. It may take some time to copy over.
Now QGIS has been installed on your computer!
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- Now that you have QGIS on your device, lets prepare it for use with ECOSTRESS data by adding basemaps. For your first time opening QGIS, start by navigating to your Applications folder, right clicking on QGIS, and selecting Open.
- A warning will pop up asking if you are sure that you want to open this application. Select open. You should only need to do this the first time that you open QGIS. For all other times, you can simply double click on the application to open it.
Tip: If the pop-up warning does not give you an option to Open on the first try, select Cancel and again right click on QGIS and select Open from the dropdown menu. The Open option should now appear in the warning pop-up.
- QGIS should open looking something like this:
- Next, lets add a plugin to allow us to use basemaps. With the application open, select for Plugins on the menu bar.
- From the drop-down options, select Manage and Install Plugins...
- A Plugins window should appear looking like this:
- In the search bar, type in HCMGIS. Once you have found HCMGIS, click Install Plugin. A notification will appear saying “Plugin installed successfully.”
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Close the plugin window. There should now be a new option in the menu bar titled HCMGIS. Select this option.
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Under the HCMGIS dropdown, hover over Basemaps to see all of the options. For now, we can select Google Satellite.
- Now a basemap should appear on your screen, as well as a Google Satellite layer toggled on under the Layers panel. You can practice toggling the layer on and off by pressing the box next to the Google Satellite layer to check or un-check it.
- You can also practice navigating the map by using the tools provided at the top of the window. Select the white hand icon to access the pan map tool. With this tool you can click on the map, hold, and drag it to a different location. You can also use the magnifying glass icons to control how much zoom you would like. Select the magnifying glass with the plus sign and click on a place to zoom into. Alternatively, you can click and drag to create a box over an area you would like to zoom into. To zoom out, select the magnifying glass with the minus sign and click on the map.
- Let’s save this project so we can keep working on it. Select the blue save button in the top left corner of the window and follow the prompt to name your project and select a location for it to save to. You will know that you have successfully saved the project when the top of the screen changes from *Untitled Project to whatever you have named your new project.
You now have a project in QGIS set up for working with ECOSTRESS data!